If I said it has been a good year, I'd be lying (I'm so used to being positive with my clients). We've survived. Or at least so my bookkeeper tells me. Last January, we won a large project resulting in the need for an extra member of staff - a large project that promptly disappeared after the hiring. Fortunately, there's been enough work to sustain my overheads. Just. Ah, for the tax breaks of the multinational.

Next year is looking a bit better, with three London projects, all spinoffs from our show garden at Chelsea. It will be great to be back in the city again.

The wet year has caused defeat in places. The lake restoration in Devon: we've got lakes, just not in the right place. For the second autumn running, Miles Waterscapes have pulled off site until things dry up a bit. On the plus side: all planting has gone well this year with no plant losses due to lack of water on our projects. Owners and gardeners have hardly had to water all year. Newly seeded and turfed lawns have leapt into life – owners and gardeners have had to mow all year instead.

The high point of 2012 (and possibly my career) was winning the People's Choice award at the RHS Chelsea flower show. My sponsors, Arthritis Research UK, were very happy with the result. Not only have they raised their profile, the fundraising events held during the show have helped enormously. So pleased are they that they plan to do Chelsea next year and have bagged no other than Chris Beardshaw – no doubt that'll be a great garden – fingers crossed for lots of rhododendrons. With Roger Platt doing the M&G garden, there could be a battle between these two for People's Choice. Jinny Blom, Adam Frost, Jo Thompson and Robert Myers are all back next year, together with the much-anticipated return of Christopher Bradley-Hole. Wow, what a Chelsea that's going to be and it's the centenary too. It'll be quite odd not doing it – anyone want any help planting?

Tom Hoblyn's vegetable garden. Photograph: Tom Hoblyn

My garden has fared well this year – with help: I have an apprentice gardener from Otley College - a brilliant initiative to give students experience before they graduate. Appropriately named Rose, she has worked very hard all year despite the weather. Yields have been low and damp-related disorders have been high in the walled garden. Peach leaf curl, apple scab, rust, chocolate spot and potato blight were the worst in the fungal department. Low sunlight levels meant poor ripening of peppers and tomatoes, and I still have pallid green tomatoes deciding whether to ripen or rot on the windowsill. Please don't recommend Delia's green tomato chutney recipe, because we have loads of it.

The Shetland sheep have not produced any lambs this year. Photograph: Tom Hoblyn

On the ovine front, last year was a bit of a disaster – we had no lambs. As it takes 18 months to get a Shetland to edible proportions, this was not ideal. Our ram-lender mooted that sexual chemistry maybe the problem – "she's no looker, is she?", he said. I suspect it had more to do with how busy he'd been before we got him. This year we have borrowed a lovely Hebridean ram and he's very much in love.

Although not contributing to the freezer, their main job is wildflower meadow management. I created the meadow eight years ago and it has taken a while to settle down. The meadow is on wetland and the soil quite rich, making for poor species diversity, bar the greedier grasses. Now the hemi-parasitic yellow rattle is finally established, these rank grasses have diminished somewhat. Species such as ragged robin and oxslips now have a fairly good hold and I suspect the wet year may help considerably. If only the bantams would stop eating the snake's head fritillaries every spring.

So, all in all: a fair year. We'll have to be very careful with our overheads (hence no office party this week) but the order book is looking fairly healthy for 2103. Apart from Chelsea, other horticultural highlights to look forward to: the David Nash exhibition at Kew on until April 14, and the Floriculture exhibition at the Garden Museum in February will be fascinating. The Tatton Park show and Malvern spring show get better and better very year.

Predictions? I suspect the trend for more natural gardens will increase, using locally sourced and re-cycled materials. The grow-your-own vegetables trend will continue and waiting lists for allotments will remain high. One thing I'd like to see is a bit more frugality with fellow veggie growers. Seed companies have been pushing up their seed prices, offering lots of gimmicky varieties at huge expense. Note to seed merchant: if it's cheaper to buy the actual veg in the supermarket than your seed you're on to a loser. Seed saving is the way to go. How about a Guardian Seed Exchange Network for 2013? Alys?

•Thomas Hoblyn is a landscape and garden designer. This is the latest in a series of posts on the ups and downs of a life spent creating beautiful gardens.